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Four Team Playoff Should Be Eight – Still Better Than The BCS

Four Team Playoff Should Be Eight – Still Better Than The BCS
Mike Zoller

With the four teams now unveiled for the first ever College Football Playoff, the debates will go on long into winter about whether or not the committee got the four teams right. Just like the BCS system, the CFP system is not perfect but in its inaugural year I think they got it right.

The top two teams, Alabama and Oregon, were no brainers. An undefeated No. 3 Florida State makes sense, no matter how bad they looked winning, because they went undefeated. It’s the No. 4 spot that created the most controversy. Between three teams, Ohio State, TCU and Baylor, all three had a viable argument but Ohio State got the nod to take on Alabama.

The four released by the committee were the four I thought would go after seeing Saturday night’s game. Rankings in college football have never made sense. Teams rise and fall on a weekly basis and while it use to be a variety of factors that determined the BCS, this year it was an 11-man committee that handpicked the top four teams.

After this first year of the CFP, I would be shocked if the field isn’t expanded to eight teams in the next few years. I argued months ago that an eight-team field would make the most sense. Take the five conference champions (Big 12, Big 10, Pac-12, SEC, ACC) and then give out three at-large bids. I do believe that if you win your conference outright you should get a shot to play for the championship. The good news is that the four in the playoffs all won their conference. However, both Baylor and TCU played very well in the Big 12 but both won’t be playing for a national championship.

A lot was talked about leading up to the bracket revealing about who deserved it more between TCU and Baylor. TCU in the second to last week of the rankings was at No. 3 but ended up at No. 6 when the final poll was released. Baylor, which was at No. 6 in the second to last rankings, beat TCU and had legit beef with the committee. After it was all said and done Baylor jumped TCU to be No. 5 and was just on the outside looking in – the ranking while nice is not a consolation prize Baylor is ready to accept.

Between the three all had impressive resumes. However, Ohio State’s non-conference schedule had to give them a leg-up on the two Big 12 schools. A lack of a conference championship game also had to hurt TCU and Baylor as Ohio State had one more game to showcase their talent and a 59-0 thrashing of highly ranked Wisconsin definitely helped them get in.

It can’t be easy to be the TCU or Baylor head coaches right now and have to address your team, but look at it this way, in the old system they would have never even had a shot. The BCS would have given only Oregon and Alabama a shot to play for the trophy. Florida State, undefeated Florida State, would have been on the outside of the two-team BCS format.

In the end the four-team CFP system isn’t perfect and my guess is that it will be expanded in the near future, but it’s better than the BCS and we should be glad these four teams are going to be playing come January 1st

On a personal level I’m thoroughly excited to see Alabama play Ohio State – a meeting of two great coaches and two storied programs. Ohio State hasn’t lost in the Big Ten under Urban Meyer and Nick Saban is the best coach in college football. We get to see these two juggernauts battle in New Orleans.

So what’s my prediction? I think Alabama defeats Ohio State while Oregon dismantles Florida State. Yes I said dismantle – Florida State is the weakest of the four teams in the playoff. Then between Alabama and Oregon I’ll take Alabama to win it all.

Love him or hate him, Lane Kiffin has done amazing things with the Alabama offense and couple that with the Crimson Tide tough D I think they are too tough to beat.

So as millions take to social media to express their delight or disgust just know this, to choose the best four teams in a 12- or 13-game season is nearly impossible. You can’t please everyone and only those in Columbus exhaled a deep sigh of relief. The playoff committee got this one right and it will be a great playoff come January.

 

 

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